Crystal Park, PhD

Professor (PI)

Department of Psychological Sciences

Chair, InCHIP’s Cancer Research Interest Group

Research Overview

Dr. Park’s research focuses on stress, coping, and adaptation, particularly on how people’s beliefs, goals, and values affect their ways of perceiving and dealing with stressful events. She has developed a comprehensive model of meaning and meaning making and is applying this model to a variety of health-related problems and traumas. Dr. Park has published articles on the roles of religious beliefs and religious coping in response to stressful life events, the phenomenon of stress-related growth, and people’s attempts to find meaning in or create meaning out of negative life events. She is currently the principal investigator on grants from the National Cancer Institute (testing a lifestyle intervention for breast cancer survivors) and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (developing a translational tool for yoga research). She is associate editor for Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, Psychology and Health, and International Journal of the Psychology of Religion. Dr. Park is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and a former president of Division 36 of APA (Psychology of Religion) and recipient of their Early Career Award. In 2014, she received the William James Award from Division 36 in recognition of her contributions to the psychology of religion and spirituality.

Education

Postdoctoral fellow, University of California-San Francisco, 1993-1995
Ph.D., University of Delaware, 1993 (clinical psychology)
M.A., Clarion University of Pennsylvania, 1988 (clinical psychology)
B.S., Clarion University of Pennsylvania, 1985 (psychology)

Recent/Selected Publication

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